William Howard "Bill" Morman, 75, died due to Lewy Body Dementia on Jan. 26, 2016, at Cottagewood Senior Community in Rochester.
Bill was born on April 10, 1940, in Poplar Bluff, Mo., and graduated from Dexter High School in Dexter, Mo. He graduated from University of Missouri at Columbia, Mo., with a BS and Master's degrees in electrical engineering.
He married Mary Alice Stone in 1964. He is survived by his wife, Mary of Rochester; a son, Stephen (Arah) Morman of St. Paul; and a brother, James Morman of Lawrence, Kan.; his mother-in-law, Thelma Stone of Chaffee, Mo.; brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, Ruth and Donald Schulte of Custer, S.D., and James and Nancy Stone of Farmington, Mo.; and numerous nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Howard and Eleanor Morman, a daughter, Jennifer Morman, and his father-in-law, George Stone of Chaffee, Mo.
Bill worked at IBM Rochester from 1968 to 2001 and for JDSUniphase from 2002 to 2003. He held various engineering and management jobs in Manufacturing Engineering and in the Development Laboratory. He held several patents, both professional and personal. After retirement as an engineer, he fulfilled a lifelong dream of owning a small restaurant — he owned and operated River Trail Picnic Basket ice cream and coffee shop in Lanesboro for eight years.
He was a lifelong member of the Methodist Church and sang in the chancel choir at Christ United Methodist Church in Rochester for more than 25 years. Bill enjoyed travel, hiking, camping and canoeing the Boundary Waters and cross-country skiing, and was passionate about bicycling. He cycled the bike trails in southeastern Minnesota and Wisconsin; biked from Rochester to the Minnesota North Shore; across Minnesota with TRAM several times; completed RAGBRAI twice, completed the Rochester Centurion numerous times; and went on bike tours in Utah, Oregon, California, Montana, Canada, and Mexico's Copper Canyon, often biking more than 100 miles in one day. Bill enjoyed learning, and studied Spanish in recent years, and was proud that he could converse in Spanish when visiting Mexico. He had a reputation as "the Fix-It Man" and was often called on by relatives and neighbors to help repair TV's, plumbing, lawnmowers, bicycles and automotive problems.
A funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, at Christ United Methodist Church, 400 Fifth Ave. SW, Rochester. Visitation will be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29, at Ranfranz & Vine Funeral Homes, 5421 Royal Place NW, Rochester, and one hour prior to the service on Saturday at the church. Burial will be in Oakwood Cemetery, Rochester.
The family prefers memorials to Heartland Hospice or Mayo Clinic Lewy Body Dementia Research.
To share a special memory or condolence, please visit
www.ranfranzandvinefh.com.